Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2024: Close contests saw 58 candidates losing despite securing 1 lakh plus votes

Among these candidates are prominent names, including former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, and senior Congress leaders Balasaheb Thorat and Dhiraj Deshmukh among others, the ECI data shows.

Mumbai: The fiercely-contested Maharashtra assembly elections where two coalitions and six major players vied for power saw 58 candidates losing despite securing more than one lakh votes, with the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) bearing the brunt.

Prominent such politicians include former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, and senior Congress leaders Balasaheb Thorat and Dhiraj Deshmukh among others, the ECI data shows.

Sunil Tingre (NCP), Sangram Thopte and Dhiraj Deshmukh (both from Congress), and Ram Shinde (BJP) also narrowly missed out on victory despite substantial voter support.

Each assembly constituency has around 2.80 lakh voters or more.

The Maha Yuti coalition, comprising the Shiv Sena, BJP and Ajit Pawar-led NCP, retained power by winning 230 of the 288 assembly seats in the recently concluded state polls, leaving the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi with just 46 seats.

Districts like Pune and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar witnessed an exceptionally high number of such close contests.

The Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (SP) has the largest share of defeated candidates who garnered over one lakh votes, with 22 such instances. The Congress came next, with 16 candidates in a similar position.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) accounted for seven of these candidates, while the BJP saw four of its nominees losing despite garnering over one lakh votes.

The Ajit Pawar-led NCP faction has two candidates on this list and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena one.

Among the high-profile losses, Congress stalwart Prithviraj Chavan failed to clinch a victory from the home turf of the Karad South constituency. Chavan polled 1,00,150 votes while the BJP winner Atul Bhosale bagged 1,39,505 votes.

Similarly, former Maharashtra Congress president Balasaheb Thorat bit dust by a margin of 10,560 votes against Shiv Sena's Amol Khatal, who polled 1,12,386 votes.

Congress stalwart Dhiraj Deshmukh was defeated from the Latur Rural constituency by a thin margin of 6,595 votes. The BJP winner Ramesh Karad polled 1,12,051 votes and Deshmukh, a sitting MLA, secured 1,05,456 votes.

Sunil Tingre of NCP lost to NCP (SP) rival from the Vadgaon Sheri assembly segment in Pune district despite a substantial voter base.

Sangram Thopte of Congress and Rahul Kalate, who belongs to NCP(SP), lost to NCP and BJP candidates from Bhor and Chinchwad constituencies, respectively, despite securing one lakh plus votes.